HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: Waynesboro Area Senior High School begins spring sports practices

Tuesday

Mar 5, 2013 at 11:00 AM

The spring thaw is underway at Waynesboro Area Senior High School. Monday was the first official day high school teams in Pennsylvania could hold spring practices. Baseball and softball held practices inside the WASHS gym, while the track and field team braved cold temperatures and wind and practiced outdoors.

The spring thaw is underway at Waynesboro Area Senior High School.Monday was the first official day high school teams in Pennsylvania could hold spring practices. Baseball and softball held practices inside the WASHS gym, while the track and field team braved cold temperatures and wind and practiced outdoors.Noticeably missing from the spring lineup is girls' soccer, which made the transition to the fall in 2012.Gone from the Mid-Penn Colonial Division in all sports is Northern, which is now in the Capital Division. In its place is Boiling Springs.

BASEBALL

The Indians baseball team is coming off a season in which they qualified for the District 3-AAAA postseason after missing out the year before. Waynesboro, which finished 10-10 in 2012, lost in the first round to Central Dauphin, 9-8.The fire that's still burning in Chandler after completing his 25th season as head coach of the varsity team is smoldering, and his focus is on building an even better team next year with all the parts already in place."I really think we had an outstanding season," Chandler said after the conclusion of last year's rollercoaster season. "All the players were a part of it from one through 17. We're anxious to get back at it."The only piece to the puzzle for 2013 is finding a starting center fielder who can fill the shoes of Ethan Klink.The team is making the transition from young to senior-oriented this year as James Bennett, Dylan Bryan, Brandon Carbaugh, Justin Freeman, Sam Masters, Cole Warrenfeltz, Ben Weber and Brandon Yurek enter their final seasons with the team.A strong group of sophomores in 2012 will be integral to the success of next year's team as John Barr, Alex Cline, Clay Eberhardt, Andrew Ebersole, Seth Hoffman and Tim Ingram will be juniors.

SOFTBALL

The Waynesboro Maidens softball team is looking to get back into a winning groove in 2013.A team that is used to winning had what may have been its worst season ever in 2012. Waynesboro finished the season with a 5-14 record, which, compared even to the 2011 season's "substandard" 11-9 record leaves the Maidens with a lot of work to do to get back to their winning ways."Other than Megan (Baker) and Delaney (Blubaugh), all the rest of the kids were either new or playing new positions," said Waynesboro coach Doug Stuart of the 2012 team. "Kaelyn (Ashway) played a new position at shortstop (from center field). It took some time for the kids to get adapted to the new positions and to varsity softball. Plus, another thing I think that hurt us is that every team other than us were senior oriented. Every one had five to seven senior starters. We had two.The Maidens return two pitchers in Callie Good and Haely Beamer, along with every other position. Good was named to the Mid-Penn Colonial Division First Team as a third baseman last year.

TRACK AND FIELD

The mantra is the same every year: The March to May.For Waynesboro, it happened for then-junior jumper Johnnie Adgers and within one-hundredth of a second for senior Maddie Sellers. It came one attempt too late for senior pole vaulter Christian Daniels.Adgers qualified for the PIAA Track and Field Championships in the long jump. Sellers, who owns school records in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, placed sixth in the District 3 meet. Daniels's district vault of 13 feet, 9 inches tied him with Northern Lebanon's Brian Boltz for fifth place, but Boltz was awarded fifth based on number of attempts."The thing that comes to my mind is our performance at districts," said Waynesboro coach Darwin Seiler. "It was kind of bittersweet because every kid we brought medaled but we advanced only one (to states)."The Maidens finished the 2012 season with a 5-2 record. The Indians were 1-6 with the win coming on the last meet of the season against Big Spring. Numerous individuals experienced personal best times and distances, and the shelf is full for this season as many return to the team.A freshman in 2012, Lilly Harnish —who was strong in both the long jump and high jump — had a breakout year for the Maidens, qualifying for the district meet and earning an eighth-place medal with a height of 5-0.Now a senior, Andrew Paterno anchored the weight events for the Indians, competing strongly in the shot put and discus. Paterno placed eighth in the shot put at the district meet, turning in a medal distance of 50-7.Adgers, who set a school record of 22-4 1/2 in the long jump in a regular season meet against West Perry, started the season competing in sprint events but focused on the jumps midway through the season. In fact, Adgers' first triple jump was over 42 feet, which earned him the win in the event and qualified him for the district meet. Adgers missed qualifying for the state meet in the high jump by one inch.Ben Petrie, also a senior this year, became Waynesboro's primary threat in the sprints. He won the 100 and 200 in the win against Big Spring. He also was on the winning 400 relay team along with Egolf, Shaquill Smith and Justin Crouteau.

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